TORONTO—A few quick thoughts from the Toronto Maple Leafs' 2-1 win in Game 6 over the Boston Bruins to force the series to a Game 7.

Bozak to the Future

Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reported earlier in the day that Leafs top-line center Tyler Bozak was unlikely to dress on Sunday, and would probably be replaced in the lineup by Joe Colborne. But Bozak was out for warmups and took line-rushes with his usual line-mates on the Leafs first line even though he didn’t look like he could shoot or handle the puck.

After the skaters left the ice, the in-house announcer told the crowd that Colborne was a healthy scratch, which suggested that Bozak would be playing through the pain.

But Colborne ultimately played and Bozak didn’t. Bozak has his critics, and by the underlying data is almost surely not a top-line NHL center. But he’s played some solid hockey in the playoffs and has soaked up major minutes for the Maple Leafs. His loss was strongly felt for forty minutes as Nazem Kadri struggled against third-line competition alongside Phil Kessel.

But then the third period happened. In the first forty minutes of Sunday night’s game the Leafs recorded only eight shot attempts with Kadri on the ice, while the Bruins directed thirteen pucks at James Reimer.

The script was flipped entirely in the third as the Leafs tossed six pucks at Tuukka Rask (two of them goals) with Kadri on the ice and allowed only two shot attempts against with Kadri on the ice.

Power Outage

When the Boston Bruins hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2011, their ace tough-minutes line that included Patrice Bergeron, Mark Recchi and super-pest Brad Marchand carried them. Since then they’ve replaced Recchi with Tyler Seguin (a clear upgrade) and rolled over teams with regularity in the regular season.

That line has been completely non-existent in this series offensively-speaking. Some of it is percentage driven as that line continues to carry play at least, but those players are going to have to step up in Game 7 lest they face a summer of twisted narratives about their respective postseason no-show.

The Toronto Crowd

After postseason hockey’s nine-year absence from Toronto, the so-called center of the hockey universe, the crowd at the Air Canada Centre seemed like they were just happy to be there in Games 3 and 4. Boisterous even in a 5-2 Game 3 loss, the fans roared all night long.

A funny thing must have happened between Games 4 and 6, and I think it’s that Toronto’s hockey fans realized, like FBI agent Dwight Harris in the series finale of the Sopranos, that they might really win this thing. A nervous energy infected the building, only briefly punctuated with a few short-lived and half-hearted “Go, Leafs Go” chants on Sunday night. Like Arnaud de Laporte, the fans seemed to be waiting for the guillotine to fall.

Yet, a funny thing happened midway through the second period. Reimer, who has followed up on his dazzling performance this season with stellar play in Toronto’s first-round series, dove across his crease to foil a Bergeron wraparound attempt. And while he only just got his stick on the puck to prevent the goal, the Air Canada Centre crowd went nuts.

What Reimer started, Dion Phaneuf finished as the crowd erupted after his goal. The boisterousness that characterized Game 4 of this series in particular, rushed back into the building, and on every save thereafter chants on Reimer and catcall whistles peppered the building.

After Kessel’s game-sealing goal the noise was turned up another notch as “thank you, Kessel” and “thank you, Seguin”chants rained down. A heck of a night to be a Leafs fan, and well deserved since its been about a decade since one could say that unironically.

Phaneuf’s redemption

Phaneuf is Toronto’s only top-pairing caliber defenseman. Cody Franson, Carl Gunnarsson and Jake Gardiner are useful supporting pieces, and probably legitimate top-four guys but Phaneuf is a player you can build a first pairing around.

Unfortunately he does so much heavy lifting in Toronto, matched up always against the opposition’s best players, that he’s prone to looking badby the eye-test, even while he’s Torontos single most important skater.

Since his ill-timed pinch resulted in David Krejci’s overtime game winner in Game 4 of this series, criticism of Phaneuf’s play has reached something of a fever pitch in the Toronto sports market.

Well he enjoyed some redemption on Sunday, matched against the Krejci-Milan Lucic-Nathan Horton line that has done so much of Boston’s damage in this series. Phaneuf played that line to a draw. Then early in the third period he broke up a Krejci-Lucic two-on-two, and went to the net in the Boston end as Kadri skated the puck into the slot. He deflected Toronto’s first goal past Rask.

The goaltending battle

Reimer turned away nine of the 10 difficult shots he faced on Sunday night, while Rask stopped only five of the seven shots on goal from within home plate that he faced. Rask and Reimer are both well above average NHL goaltenders and their play has decided every game of the series (i.e. the team with the better goaltender is 6-0 so far).

It’ll be a night to remember in Boston on Monday as two original six teams face off in a winner takes all Game 7.